Why we lose liberty

Earlier this year, the LA Times reported: "TSA quietly launches new 'enhanced' pat-down procedure." The Times noted that TSA would not describe precisely how the new procedure is different from the old one: "TSA officials declined to detail the new universal procedure or the previous pat-down tactics, but the industry is bracing for passenger unhappiness about more invasive searches."

For those curious about what the "enhanced" pat-down involves, I had a first-hand experience (no pun intended) Sunday evening September 10 in the Kansas City airport. (This is going exactly where you think it's going, so feel free to stop reading right now.)

After going through a metal detector in the TSA-Pre security line, I was randomly selected to see if a machine would detect explosives on my hands. My palms were swabbed and the machine detected explosives, even though I had not recently handled a gun, flammable liquids, or any sort of explosives. Another airline passenger told me the same machine had detected explosives on the hands of another passenger who had gone through the line minutes before I did.

So what precisely does the "enhanced" pat-down seem to entail, you ask?

Well, since you asked, the agent runs his hand inside a passenger's waistband and also runs his hand up the back of each leg until he "meets resistance" and then does the same from the front of each leg. And then the TSA agent swipes the front of his hands 3 or 4 times right over the zipper area of one's Gap Outlet comfort-stretch khakis. That last part was the most unpleasant.

For what it's worth, this isn't the story of an agent who didn't know how to do a pat-down. The agent described exactly what he was going to do before he did it and seemed to be simply carrying out the government's policy. I'm sure he'd like a job that involves less groping.

I'm not a crazy ACLU-type. I've had no problem with body-scanners or previous TSA pat-downs. In 2009, a terrorist famously smuggled a bomb in his underwear aboard a U.S. flight. But an agent of the state should probably only touch a citizen's genitals seven or eight times if the agent has reasonable suspicion, and not because a machine is malfunctioning or calibrated, intentionally or unintentionally, to detect explosives on everyone who is tested.

(Why we fail, right there. Because nobody can understand: once you grant the premise, once you say you "have no problem with" such and such and so and so, then what $#@!ing difference does it make if government fondles your balls once, twice or a hundred times? None. It makes no difference. - AF)

"It's a Free Country."
"They hate us for our Freedoms."
"The troops are protecting your Freedom."

Resistance should have started from the get go. "You touch my junk and I break your jaw," instead, it'll eventually end with voluntarily spreading your butt cheeks.

Theye have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Theye have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Theye kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies

Theye have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

Theye plundered and destroyed the lives of our people.

Theye are at this time transporting Armies of Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized nation.

The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

The fact that anyone who does not absolutely have to still flies is the most depressing thought for those who want to restore liberty in this nation, we need protests and riots over the TSA and we can't even get a boycott.

Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

Robert Heinlein

Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

Groucho Marx

I love mankindÖitís people I canít stand.

Linus, from the Peanuts comic

You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

Alexis de Torqueville

Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

(Why we fail, right there. Because nobody can understand: once you grant the premise, once you say you "have no problem with" such and such and so and so, then what $#@!ing difference does it make if government fondles your balls once, twice or a hundred times? None. It makes no difference. - AF)

Well, a hundred vigorous fondles might make a difference over two. Then angle of dangle math applies.

The fact that anyone who does not absolutely have to still flies is the most depressing thought for those who want to restore liberty in this nation, we need protests and riots over the TSA and we can't even get a boycott.

Everybody has such a busy "lifestyle" they have no time for protests. The protests would also hold the line and nobody got no time for that.

The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

The end result of immigration restrictions with the people currently in Congress will be mass implementation of TSA screenings on highways, among other atrocities.

Originally Posted by Ron Paul

Perhaps the most important lesson from Obamacare is that while liberty is lost incrementally, it cannot be regained incrementally. The federal leviathan continues its steady growth; sometimes boldly and sometimes quietly. Obamacare is just the latest example, but make no mistake: the statists are winning. So advocates of liberty must reject incremental approaches and fight boldly for bedrock principles.